Thiruvananthapuram: Health minister K.K. Shyalaja has asked the authorities of the Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, to conduct an inquiry into the complaints that students of different genders are not allowed to sit together inside classrooms. The minister’s directive came after the students submitted a petition to her on the issue. College principal Thomas Mathew, meanwhile, clarified that the institution has not questioned girls and boys sitting side by side in class rooms but the college will conduct an inquiry into the allegations that the students who protested on Facebook against gender segregation were being targeted.
The principal, who returned to campus after being on leave, was responding to reports which appeared in this paper on December 10 on the issue. The college union had also brought the topic to his notice. “The medical college is a campus known for its progressive ideas,” Dr Mathew said. “Medical education is being imparted with no gender discrimination. A women teacher in the class room had questioned over 12 to 13 students belonging to both the genders mixing and sitting on a bench that can accommodate only seven to eight students.” The hall, which was crammed, was over 65 years old,.” The college authorities had not officially asked the students of different genders not to sit side by side in the class room, he said.
Some teachers had raised the issue at a general body meeting of the parent-teacher association (PTA) held last week. The majority of the parents present at the meeting were against allowing students of different genders sitting together in a bench that does not have the facility to accommodate that much students, the principal said. “No action had been initiated against students on the issue,” Dr Mathew said. “Space shortage inside the class room would end when the new lecture hall is completed.”
